Beginner Series: Ruby Tutorial
Ruby is often recommended to beginners because it’s easy to use and master. Another reason is that it comes with a long list of benefits when compared to other languages.
Many of these benefits you’ll experience almost as soon as you start working with the language.
For starters, the Ruby ecosystem is huge, and that’s before you factor in Ruby on Rails.
What do we mean by this exactly? Let’s break it down so you can understand better.
- Ruby Resources are Plentiful: Anytime you’re working with a language the resources available to you are going to be your lifeline. In addition to extensive official documentation, there is a vast supply of resources available to the average Ruby developer including books, screencasts, videos, online courses, local classes (colleges), developer boot camps, tiered dev forums, and more!
- Ruby Has an Active Community: There are a lot of developers out there actively working with Ruby. An active community is another abundant source of aid when you run into a problem.
- Ruby Has over 60,000 Libraries and Multiple Frameworks to Choose from: With frameworks and libraries like Ruby on Rails or Chef, you can incorporate the pre-existing code in your own projects. RubyGems was even created specifically for Ruby, to help manage the numerous frameworks and libraries built on the language. All these sources translate into an easier and faster development cycle for you and your projects.
On top of all this, learning Ruby is a stepping stone to working with frameworks like Ruby on Rails. Rails will allow you to develop web applications much faster by leveraging a huge collection of pre-existing code. Think of it as being similar to modular building. Instead of constructing an entire app or platform from scratch, you can take pre-existing modules of code and piece them together to create what you want.
You don’t have to code individual functions like authentication tools, user profiles, or similar setups. Instead, you can just modify what’s available through Rails to match what you need.
If this still sounds like a bunch of hogwash at this point take our word for it, frameworks and libraries make things much simpler, and much faster.
Finally, both Ruby and Ruby on Rails are experiencing an incredible growth in demand right now. Not only are companies hiring developers to build websites using Ruby on Rails – and maintain their code bases – there’s also a huge demand for DevOps engineers.
A DevOps engineer manages the automation and deployment of servers running frameworks like Puppet and Chef. Since these systems are used to manage reliable and efficient servers designed to handle heavy loads of traffic, the need for engineers that can operate these systems will grow. Especially since everything we do is connected to the web these days, and companies are making a big push into the cloud and SAS (software as a service) systems.
Jobs for Ruby Developers
Most jobs that require knowledge of Ruby have to do with web development. A majority of them call for knowing the Rails framework, or other development languages and tools.
Popular job titles for Ruby developers include:
- Ruby or Ruby on Rails Engineer
- Ruby/Ruby on Rails Full-Time Developer
- Back End Engineer/Developer
- Full Stack Developer (with list of languages like Ruby)
- Agile Software Developer
- Build Release Engineer
- Web Developer/Software Engineer
As you can see there are multiple terms – or buzzwords – that are used to describe these careers. On job boards, many listings will mention alternate tools and languages the ideal candidate should be familiar with.
Where is the Best Place to Start?
Since Ruby is extremely easy to use, it doesn’t matter where you begin your learning journey.
The most important thing to remember is that you will increase your skill through focus and motivation. There are tons of places where you can learn Ruby quickly, efficiently, and most of all correctly. However, if you don’t invest time learning said materials you’ll never become experienced.
Find a source that you can stay motivated and focused on, and you’ll do just fine!
Next, let’s take a look at the Features Ruby Has to Offer.
Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers.
